Happy Easter-Pigging out

We have 2 days of bank holidays here in the UK, so time to relax (albeit in the snow...) and "pig out" on the piles of chocolate that will no doubt materialize!  I hope to get my pencils out a bit during these 4 days and bring back sketches of the rural parts of the Lake District!  In the meantime HAPPY EASTER!

 

Mangelwurzel or mangold wurzel

I learned a new little mangled word when showing one of my watercolours: "Mangelwurzel" !

Sounding very medieval or saxon and referring to this:

(FOR SALE at Achilleas on Mill Lane (London NW6) or contact us here)

or quite possibly this:

Wikipedia tells us that Mangelwurzel or mangold wurzel (from German Mangel/Mangold, "chard", and Wurzel, "root"), also called mangold,^[1] mangel beet,^[1] field beet^[2] and fodder beet, is a cultivated root vegetable derived from Beta vulgaris. Its large white, yellow or orange-yellow swollen roots were developed in the 18th century as a fodder crop for feeding livestock

Apparently Brits used to eat "Mangowuzels" during the war and that left an upalatable dislike for this root vegetable! Not having experience that, I personally love root vegs, and they still looks good enough to paint.

Achillea Flowers

We met Clare, of Achillea Flowers on Mill Lane at the West Hampstead Christmas Market.  The mom and daughter shop is bursting with beautiful flowers that are not your typical Florist offerings.  Bursting with what I can only describe as vintage chic with a pinch of countryside natural organic beauty, the shop is located slightly outside reality.  You step in and surrounding the masses of perfumed flowers, there are little antiques, vases, teapots and various knick knacks collected over the years.

It reminds me very much of the movie Practical Magic, where the witchy sisters had the most insanely beautiful decorated house complete with a green house for their potion plants.

Long story short, you can pick up a Melinart watercolour there now with your trendy bouquet if you are local to West Hampstead!!  We even offer the possibility to order custom paintings of whatever antiques are in the shop!

I made these little business signs to put under the first watercolours to be presented there.  Hope Achillea's clients will like the paintings!

Galette or King's cake

Galette des Rois or King's cake is a delicious puff pastry concotion with an almond cream filling, sometimes an almond-creme patissiere filling, and now coming in almost any variation in the fancy Paris bakeries (banana-chocolate, seriously?).

 

The watercolour recipe goes something like this:

 

 

Original or High resolution prints available by contacting us here.

Originally a symbol of the Magis' arrival to bring presents to the newborn Jesus (the "Epiphany"), it was meant to ressemble middle-eastern treats such as baklawas.  Hence the heavy almond use and puff pastry, akin to Phillo pastry. 

 

We've had about 10 of these since the 6th of January (the official "Epiphany" date).  The husband even made the puff pastry at some point.  A delicious tradition.

 

St Jacques

The christmas/New year break was a festival or great food, family and friends. Among these were lots and lots of "Coquilles St Jacques" or Scallops.  

Like any food mixing tradition I love that they are linked to the pilgrims and the St Jacques de Compostelle trail from France to Spain. The pilgrims always carried an empty scallop shell. Shells on buildings and fountains signified to them that they were welcomed to rest there. These shells (or their representation) are also supposed to hold great powers and bring serenity and clarity.

Contact us if you would like your own watercolour of St Jacques scallops!

(These particular one had a little baby scallop growing on its shell, explaining the bluish round spot on the upper right corner of the shell.)

 



Other foods I can not resist are Galette St Michel, buttery cookies with an imprint of St Michel crushing the dragon. St Honoré, a splendid cake of choux pastry, whipped cream and caramel, bearing the name of the patron saint of bakers. And St Félicien or St Marcellin, wonderfully runny creamy cheeses.
Having a Saint's name in them makes them in my mind calorie free item (almost)!

The Carrots Of Love

Carrots are one of my favorites subjects to paint.  Don't know why I find them oddly relaxing.  That and I love all shades of oranges.  These includes the purple and yellow carrots found at the farmer's market. 
In a soup with cabbage and leeks, the carrots give sweet creaminess and body.

Christmas market

2012 is drawing to an end.... (but of course it is not an end to our drawing....:)
Here are pictures of our stall at the West Hampstead Christmas market, with our goods on proud display.  Melinart paintings of vegetables, fruits and donuts but also Mr MelinArt upholstered storage boxes, made of Toile de Jouy and French wine boxes.  We enjoyed ourselves thoroughly, talking and sharing coffee and cookies with our neigboring stalls and the happy visitors of the market.  We hope to do it again next year.  In the meantime, we are celebrating the holidays with family and the new year with the happiness that is wanted and needed for all of us.

 

 

 

Zesty Clementine

This juicy sweet clementine was taken by the little hands and dispatched before I return to complete the leaves.  We also made a cake with the rest of the lot, using all the juices and zests.  Poppy seeds added for crunch.  YUM!

This watercolour is now displayed in a little girl's room, and she is named Clémentine!

If you would like your own custom watercolour, contact us!

Woohoo 2

The lovely Clotilde strikes again.  Featuring a Melinart illustration on her famous and mother of all food blog site,  Chocolate and Zucchini
This series features French Food Idioms and has been so interesting over the years, mixing a bit of French history and litterature with the food theme. Check it out!

Thank you Clotilde!

Just Beet it!

In the famous words of Michael Jackson....!  :)
Ok so his one will be on sale at the Xmas market this Saturday, unless of course you snatch it before by contacting us here !

Close-up of the wonderfully runny colors..!

Watercolor Mushrooms

I am back from a one week business trip and painting like crazy for next Week-End's Christmas Market.  It will be on West End Green 10am to 4pm on Saturday 8 December. 

I hope it will be a success!

Velvet Tub Chairs

Back from a long week working in Paris.  I missed the kids.   This lovely "Tub" chair is how I see very colorful things: The vibe of the colors, then the shapes.

 

Original Watercolour 6x6inch (15x15 cm) FOR SALE please contact us!

 

Back Talk

I really like this English expression which is now very handy now that I find myself with a teenager and little ball of toddleristic energy!  "Back talking" also mean "giving lip" as in "Don't give me lip!"

This watercolor is inspired from a painting I did with a macaron been eaten.  I isolated the mouth and the watercolor ran a little.  It ended up looking so nice that I did another one and shook the paper to get it to run again! That is one of the effect I like the most in watercolor, the randomness that becomes integral to the drawing!  You can get that in cooking somethimes with leftovers that become a perfect one-time only dish!

Hope you enjoy!

FOR SALE Original watercolor 6x6 inch (15x15 cm)

Glorious Bees - A Beehive Watercolor

I love Bees. I love everything about them, their intuitive almost psychic way for each single bee to act as a whole.  The way they are so in tune with nature that they are barometers for the state of of it.  The delicious cakes and "pain d'epices" (spice bread).  The morning toasts slathered with dark chestnut honey.  The medicinal properties for sore throats of course, but also for disinfecting and healing a wound without scaring. 
Honey and bees are some of my favorites subjects to draw. Certainly, it is one of my life goals to keep bees.
Here is a an old-style beehive in Watercolor which I enjoyed making in sweet green, honey and rose colors.  I also added a cropped bit of the picture to show the granularity of the watercolor that makes this technique so sweet.  Enjoy!

FOR SALE - £50 original A4  - Contact us here.

Framed it could look like this:

 

Details of the granular Watercolour

 

HAPPY HALLOWEEN - Why do we dress as witches?

HAPPY HALLOWEEN FROM MELINART!

Halloween, All saints, Toussaint, Eid Al Adha, Shemini Atzeret what do they have in common?  Read on.....

This watercolour witch is riding a watercolour paintbrush....
Interestingly, halloween matches the French "Toussaint" where you traditionally go with your family to visit the tomb of your ancestors/departed family.  It involves a lot less candy.....

So why is this holiday asssociated with witches and grim reapers?

In astronomy, halloween represents the halfway point between the autumnal equinox and winter solstice, the last of four "cross-quarter" days on the solar calendar.  It was the end of the year, beginning of the new one for the celts. And in esoteric tradition the day of the year where the veil between the living and the dead is the thinnest. 

The Celts believed that at the time of Samhain, more so than any other time of the year, the ghosts of the dead were able to mingle with the living, because at Samhain the souls of those who had died during the year traveled into the otherworld. People gathered to sacrifice animals, fruits, and vegetables.

Shemini Atzeret in the Jewish religion is around the same time and marks the end of the year's weekly readings of the Torah (Five Books of Moses) in the synagogue, and the beginning of the new cycle of reading.
Eid Al-Adha for Muslims concludes the annual Hajj, or pilgrimage to Mecca. 
Many more religions have major celebration linked to end/beginning of year around Halloween.

We will be spending Halloween going around West Hampstead and Hampstead with a group of Pokemon dressed teenagers.  I guess it good that these happy teenagers don't really like to dress in ghoulish styles.  But I'll be sure to explain to them why they shouldn't look too cheerful when going to bed less the Hallloween spirits find them too delicious!  (That a good halloween scary story isn't it!)
I'll be dressed as a witch, like every year before!

(Cropped picture below to see better cheeks and ragged hat!)

Halloween Pumpkin Soup



Hello there! I am back from a short trip and a spicy pumpkin soup was waiting for me at home.  Just what you want to eat for diner rolling off the plane. 

 

"Hearsay" recipe from Husband: A huge butternut squash, 2 small onions and a couple of small potatoes thrown in, a couple of carrots, 2 cloves of garllic, salt, cracked pepper and lots of pepper flakes!  Creme fraiche was witheld due to (my...) diet concerns but the soup did not need any. 

 

 

We are now the proud owner of one of these.  I brought it back in my carry-on suitcases.  Iberia personnel did not see anything odd about having a hoof sticking a fair way out of my suitcase!

 





So one of this now hangs from the kitchen ceiling in a "sock" the shop gave us for it.    It took 2 of us and some fairly deep cuts (finger cuts) but the transparently thin slices are awesome with a bit of pumpkin soup!

HALLOWEEN IS COMING!!!
FOR SALE - Contact me!

Macarons Macarons - Creme Brulee and Chocolate



Macarons macarons...by popular demand, and a bit more abstract this time!.  I had these macs in a London restaurant.  Creme brulee and Chocolate-salted caramel fillings.  I won't forget about them!  They would make a nice Kitchen decoration don't you think?
8 inch x 10 (close to A4) format - FOR SALE!   Contact us using the contact us form on the right navigation bar.

 

 

 

 

 

Framed it could look like this:

or this!!

 

Cauliflower - West Hampstead Farmer's Market - (WI and walnut cookies)

Picked up a couple of nice cauliflower heads, along with biodynamic eggs at the West Hampstead Farmer's market.  Made a vat of cauliflower mash with milk, salt, papper and a pinch of cumin.
oh yeah...and I sketched one head with a quill....
Now wondering about a little watercolor wash.....? What do you think?

 

I missed the Women's Institute crowd, the market was so busy! But won't miss the October 4th meet at Brioche café!!!

 

 And since the weather is so wet, a batch of roasted walnut butter cookies-pinch of cinnamon sugar on top.  The house smells lovely.

 

 

MelinArt at the Tate

How cool is this frame for my little lamb's lettuce drawing! This site is so handy
It would look good in your house too!  Contact us for commissions and prices!

 

Carrots - drawing ink exercise

 

Carrots in drawing ink, I drew on kraft paper with the fountain pen very quickly but happy with the result.  Farmer's market is coming to West Hampstead 22 september, certainly a source for inspiration!  See the London's Farmer's Market site for West Hampstead